15-letter words containing g, o, n
- gulf of fonseca — an inlet of the Pacific Ocean in W Central America
- gulf of taranto — an inlet of the Ionian Sea, in Apulia in SE Italy
- gunnery officer — an officer in charge of heavy guns
- guru meditation — (operating system) The Amiga equivalent of Unix's panic (sometimes just called a "guru" or "guru event"). When the system crashes, a cryptic message of the form "GURU MEDITATION #XXXXXXXX.YYYYYYYY" may appear, indicating what the problem was. An Amiga guru can figure things out from the numbers. In the earliest days of the Amiga, there was a device called a "Joyboard" which was basically a plastic board built onto a joystick-like device; it was sold with a skiing game cartridge for the Atari game machine. It is said that whenever the prototype OS crashed, the system programmer responsible would concentrate on a solution while sitting cross-legged, balanced on a Joyboard, resembling a meditating guru. Sadly, the joke was removed in AmigaOS 2.04. The Jargon File claimed that a guru event had to be followed by a Vulcan nerve pinch but, according to a correspondent, a mouse click was enough to start a reboot.
- gynandromorphic — (of an organism) Having male and female characteristics.
- hacking x for y — [ITS] Ritual phrasing of part of the information which ITS made publicly available about each user. This information (the INQUIR record) was a sort of form in which the user could fill out various fields. On display, two of these fields were always combined into a project description of the form "Hacking X for Y" (e.g. ""Hacking perceptrons for Minsky""). This form of description became traditional and has since been carried over to other systems with more general facilities for self-advertisement (such as Unix plan files).
- haemoglobinuria — the presence of haemoglobin in the urine
- haemoglobinuric — relating to the presence of haemoglobin in the urine
- half wellington — a loose boot extending to just above the ankle and usually worn under the trousers.
- halting problem — The problem of determining in advance whether a particular program or algorithm will terminate or run forever. The halting problem is the canonical example of a provably unsolvable problem. Obviously any attempt to answer the question by actually executing the algorithm or simulating each step of its execution will only give an answer if the algorithm under consideration does terminate, otherwise the algorithm attempting to answer the question will itself run forever. Some special cases of the halting problem are partially solvable given sufficient resources. For example, if it is possible to record the complete state of the execution of the algorithm at each step and the current state is ever identical to some previous state then the algorithm is in a loop. This might require an arbitrary amount of storage however. Alternatively, if there are at most N possible different states then the algorithm can run for at most N steps without looping. A program analysis called termination analysis attempts to answer this question for limited kinds of input algorithm.
- hang one's head — the upper part of the body in humans, joined to the trunk by the neck, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
- hanging offence — a crime that is punishable by hanging
- hapax legomenon — a word or phrase that appears only once in a manuscript, document, or particular area of literature.
- hard of hearing — partially deaf
- hardhead sponge — any of several commercial sponges, as Spongia officinalis dura, of the West Indies and Central America, having a harsh, fibrous, resilient skeleton.
- haulage company — a firm that transports goods by lorry
- have an edge on — a line or border at which a surface terminates: Grass grew along the edges of the road. The paper had deckle edges.
- have had enough — be weary, exasperated
- have nothing on — be naked
- hearing ear dog — a dog that has been trained to alert a hearing-impaired person to sounds, as a telephone ringing or dangerous noises.
- hearing-ear dog — a dog that has been trained to alert a hearing-impaired person to sounds, as a telephone ringing or dangerous noises.
- heat-conducting — able to conduct heat or whose function is to conduct heat
- heave-off hinge — loose-joint hinge.
- hedonic damages — compensation based on what the victim of a crime might have earned in the future
- hemangiosarcoma — A fast-growing, highly invasive variety of cancer, a sarcoma arising from the lining of blood vessels, occurring almost exclusively in dogs and rarely in cats.
- heterogeneities — the quality or state of being heterogeneous; composition from dissimilar parts; disparateness.
- heterogeneously — different in kind; unlike; incongruous.
- hiberno-english — Also called Anglo-Irish. the English language as spoken in Ireland.
- high commission — A High Commission is the office where a High Commissioner and his or her staff work, or the group of officials who work there.
- high definition — a system for screen display of images that are sharper and more detailed than normal, having many more than the standard number of scanning lines per frame: Most TV shows are available in high definition. Abbreviation: HD. See also high-definition television.
- high on the hog — in a luxurious or costly way
- high resolution — a great amount of detail visible in a photographic, TV, or video image
- high technology — any technology requiring the most sophisticated scientific equipment and advanced engineering techniques, as microelectronics, data processing, genetic engineering, or telecommunications (opposed to low technology).
- high-angle shot — a shot taken from a camera positioned above the action
- high-definition — High-definition television or technology is a digital system that gives a much clearer picture than traditional television systems.
- high-resolution — having or capable of producing an image characterized by fine detail: high-resolution photography; high-resolution lens.
- hog-nosed skunk — Also called badger skunk, rooter skunk. a large, naked-muzzled skunk, Conepatus mesoleucus, common in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, having a black coat with one broad white stripe down the back and tail.
- holding company — a company that controls other companies through stock ownership but that usually does not engage directly in their productive operations (distinguished from parent company).
- holding furnace — a small furnace for holding molten metal produced in a larger melting furnace at a desired temperature for casting.
- holding paddock — a paddock in which cattle or sheep are kept temporarily, as before shearing, etc
- holding pattern — a traffic pattern for aircraft at a specified location (holding point) where they are ordered to remain until permitted to land or proceed.
- holiday feeling — the positive feeling people experience while on holiday and during holiday periods such as the Christmas period
- homing guidance — a method of missile guidance in which internal equipment enables it to steer itself onto the target, as by sensing the target's heat radiation
- homing instinct — an instinct that enables an animal to return home after travelling great distances
- homogeneousness — (rare) homogeneity, the state of having a uniform composition.
- honey tangerine — a citrus fruit with a deep-orange pulp, formed by crossing a tangerine and a sweet orange hybrid; Murcott
- horned oak gall — a small, round tumor, formed around wasp eggs laid in the branches of a pin oak tree, that disrupts the flow of nutrients to the tree, with consequent defoliation and death.
- horse-and-buggy — of or relating to the last few generations preceding the invention of the automobile: vivid recollections of horse-and-buggy days.
- hot-bulb engine — a low-compression oil engine requiring a heated bulb or cap for ignition.
- hot-dip coating — the process of coating sheets of iron or steel with molten zinc.